Lantern Love

 

I attended a class at Red Cedar Gardens last month on decorating lanterns.  I love lanterns and they’ve become very popular in home decor over the years.  I still see them being displayed at my favorite home store Pottery Barn. If Pottery Barn has them then I’m convinced they’re still in.  Pottery Barn and Red Cedar are two of my go to sources for inspiration.You can read more about my inspiration from Red Cedar Gardens here, here, here, and here.  You might be thinking, “Did she get paid to write this?”  The answer is NO.  I’m just truly inspired by the place.  If you live in the Kansas City metro area you definitely need to pay this little family owned nursery a visit.

I’ve taken a couple of classes at Red Cedar and Ricki has yet to disappoint me.  In the Lantern Love class she showed us various ways to decorate different types of lanterns.  I can sometimes get stuck on what to do with my lanterns and usually wind up settling with a candle and maybe a few natural elements surrounding it.  Ricki showed us several creative ideas and ways to think outside of the box when it comes to decorating lanterns.

 

 

If your lantern isn’t surrounded by glass consider adding twigs to the bottom for a natural element and let it hang out of the sides.   I love how this lantern uses a book to give the display some height.  The little wreath is attached with floral wire and if you want you can double the wreath and add one so that if faces the outside as well.

 

 

This lantern is all enclosed by glass, but instead of adding a candle, Ricki used a Santa statue and used a piece of a log at the base to give him height.  A few sprigs with berries were placed behind the Santa to make the display a little more interesting.

 

 

Sometimes lanterns are so small that you can’t fit much besides a candle.  In this case, Ricki attached a reindeer to the outside of the lantern along with some ribbon and greenery.

 

 

This is another example of how you can attach items to the outside of a lantern.  I love the heart with wings.

 

 

A great way to spruce up your Christmas wreath would be to hang a lantern from the middle of it.

 

 

If your lantern is big enough you might consider propping a picture or tray in the background of your display.

The possibilities are endless.  I hope this gives you some inspiration for decorating your lanterns.  Most of these lanterns are pretty rustic, but you could apply the same principles using colors and things that fit your style.  I’ll be breaking my Christmas stuff out this weekend and getting started on decorating for the holidays, how about you?  I usually wait until after Thanksgiving, but I’ve been itching to get it done.

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